Speech is the vocalized form of human communication. Spoken words are created out of the phonetic combination of a limited set of vowels and consonants. Millions of children and adults worldwide are affected by language disorders such as speech sound disorders or articulation disorders, for example. Articulation disorders are based on a difficulty in learning to physically produce the intended phonemes, or a difficulty making sounds. For instance, a child or adult suffering from an articulation disorder may make a /w/ sound when an /r/sound is intended.
Often, articulation disorders are a result of incorrect placement and/or tension of the tongue in a mouth of a speaker. The speaker may find it difficult to visualize the correct location of the tongue and, as a result, speech therapy devices may be particularly helpful to orient the tongue of the speaker properly within the mouth of the speaker.
Speech-Language Pathologists specialize in helping speakers overcome language disorders such as articulation and speech sound disorders. Various treatments aimed at optimizing articulation of individual sounds or minimizing errors in the production of sound patterns are often used by Speech-Language Pathologists. For example, Speech-Language Pathologists may demonstrate to speakers how to produce a sound correctly, teach speakers to recognize which sounds are correct and incorrect, and/or have speakers use various speech therapy devices to practice producing sounds in different words.
Speech therapy devices may be used to help in the pronunciation of certain vowels and/or consonants. Typically, a speech therapy device is positioned in the mouth of the speaker and the speaker practices pronouncing the sound or words containing the sound that is the subject of the articulation disorder of the speaker. As non-limiting examples, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,867,770, 5,169,316, and 5,257,930 show common elements and features of the prior art. The entire disclosure of each of the above-mentioned patents is hereby incorporated herein by reference. Speech therapy devices currently available, however, are often expensive. Additionally, speech therapy devices are often difficult to use, time consuming, and ineffective.
It would be desirable to have a simple, efficient, cost effective speech therapy device to be used by children and adults suffering from a language disorder, specifically, an inability to correctly pronounce the /r/ sound.